From the failure of the Constitutional in July 1837 to the start of Vanity Fair in January 1947, Thackeray was a journalist, writing for his life at a job - one hesitates to call it either a trade or profession - that he spoke of as "odious magazine-work wh. wd. kill any writer in 6 years" (Letters 1: 459). During that period he contributed nearly 450 pieces of original work to at least twenty-two different magazines, newspapers, or other periodicals. The major vehicles of his magazinery were Fraser's Magazine, [36/37]Authors — W. M. Thackeray]

The incredible number of Thackeray's contributions to periodicals during those ten years and especially the fact that so much of his work appears in six apparently friendly magazines may mask the desperate difficulties and repeated rebuffs he endured from publishers in the early years. There are a number of letters in 1837, for example, from Thackeray to John Mitchell Kemble, his friend from Cambridge days and at the time editor of the British and Foreign Review, asking for work and proposing articles and reviews, but after two acceptances Kemble apparently decided against any more of Thackeray's "light" articles and, in spite of Thackeray's pleas for more work, evinced enough coolness toward his college friend that Thackeray gave up on account of Kemble's "airs." [de Groot / Houghton, 3: 68; Letters 1: 420]. In February 1841, having recently concluded that his wife's mental condition demanded professional care, he wrote from France a plaintive letter to Jane Carlyle asking her to forward three letters for him, one to the Times, one to James Fraser, editor of Fraser's Magazine, and a third to an unknown correspondent, possibly Richard Bentley, whom Thackeray mentioned in his cover letter. He further asked her to intercede with the Times and with John Forster to help promote the sale of Comic Tales by writing good reviews. The letter reveals a man desperate for cash though he asked only for help in getting his work published and sold. A month later on 20 March, he wrote Mrs. Carlyle again, this time in a slightly more relaxed tone, thanking her for the success of her intervention with Fraser (with whom Thackeray had had "a slight coolness") and remarking that Fraser and Bentley had "stuff enough to keep my dear little woman where she is for 3 months to come." Although Fraser published Thackeray's work, Thackeray had to write Bentley on the first of June to turn his manuscript of The History of Samuel Titmarsh over to another publisher, Hugh Cunningham [Harden, Carlyles, pp. 168-70; Ray, Adversity, p. 478]. And there is no record of an acceptance from the Times in that year. [37/38]Authors — W. M. Thackeray]

Authors — W. M. Thackeray]

Short series and occasional items continued to be equally necessary to his livelihood, and in addition to writing for the "big six," Thackeray contributed sporadically to fourteen other periodicals, including the Calcutta Star (contributions which have yet to be traced, listed, and reprinted) and Corsair Authors — W. M. Thackeray]

(an American enterprise operated by N. P. Willis which Thackeray apparently abandoned for nonpayment of fees). Thackeray also illustrated works by Douglas Jerrold, John Burrow, and Charles G. Addison, as well as providing drawings for the Anti-Corn Law Circular Authors — W. M. Thackeray]

and Punch, Authors — W. M. Thackeray]

where the text, if any, was supplied by others. He also tried and failed to get work illustrating novels by Charles Dickens and William Harrison Ainsworth. But his attempts remind us of his real ability as an artist who chose to illustrate many of his own works because he was talented enough to do so

Magazine work was, of course, more odious some times than others, and Thackeray's relatively stable staff status with Fraser's, Authors — W. M. Thackeray]

the Morning Chronicle, Authors — W. M. Thackeray]

and Punch provided him with income he did not readily give up when he became a top book author. His magazinery, moreover, included apprentice fiction that one day would earn him both more money and more reputation than the struggling author at first thought. During the ten years preceding Vanity Fair, Authors — W. M. Thackeray]

he wrote as serials The Yellowplush Papers for Fraser's (November 1837 - August 1838), Major Gahagan for New Monthly (November 1838 - February 1839), Catherine for Fraser's (May 1839 - February 1840), A Shabby Genteel Story Authors — W. M. Thackeray]

for Fraser's (June - October 1840), The History of Samuel Titmarsh and the Great Hoggarty Diamond for Fraser's (September - December 1841), "Miss Tickletoby's Lectures" for Punch (July - October 1842), "Fitzboodle's Confessions" for Punch (October 1842 - November 1843), and The Luck of Barry Lyndon for Fraser's (January - December 1844). All these, of course, were paid at odious magazine rates, about ten to twelve guineas a sheet (sixteen printed pages). Though he had little success, throughout these years his aim was to produce books, from which, as he said rather too optimistically in 1840, he could "get 300£ for my 3 months work instead of 120 wh. the Magazines wd. pay" (Letters 1: 459).

References

de Groot, H. B. / Houghton, Walter. "The British and Foreign Review; or, European Quarterly Journal, 1835-1844: Introduction" Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, ed. Walter Houghton / Esther Rhoads Houghton. 5 vols. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1966-89, 3: 62-76.

Fraser, Sir William. Hic et Ubique. 1893, except rpt. Thackeray Interviews and Recollections, ed. Philipp Collins. London: Macmillan, 1983.

Gordan, John. William Makepeace Thackeray: An Exhibition. New York: New York Public Library, 1947.

Gulliver, Harold Strong. Thackeray's Literary Apprenticeship. Valdosta, Ga.: priv. Ptd., 1936.

Harden, Edgar. "Thackeray and the Carlyles: Seven Further Letters" Studies in Scottish Literature 14 (1979), 168-70

Huxley, Leonard. The House of Smith, Elder. London: priv. ptd. 1923.

Monsarrat, Anne. An Uneasy Victorian: Thackeray the Man. London: Casell, 1980.

Patten, Robert. Charles Dickens and His Publishers. Oxford: Clarendon, 1978.

Peters, Catherine. Thackeray's Universe. London: Faber & Faber, 1987.

The Letters and Private Papers of William Makepeace Thackeray, ed. Gordon N. Ray. 4 vols. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1946.

Ray, Gordon. Thackeray: The Age of Wisdom. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958.

-----, Thackeray: The Uses of Adversity. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1955.

Spielman, M. H. Hithero Unidentified Contributions of W. M. Thackeray to Punch. 1900; rpt. New York: Haskell House, 1971.

Van Duzer, Henry S. A Thackeray Library. 1919; rpt. New York: Kennikat Press, 1965.

Wilson, James Grant. Thackeray in the United State, 1852-3, 1855-6. 2 vols. London: Smith, Elder, 1904.

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Last modified: 9 April 2001